Lanting Preface: From Copying to Creation

Author: Qin Jingen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: From copying to creation, it is a topic that every calligrapher must face. The artistic characteristics of calligraphy determine that it places greater emphasis on "copying" as an entry and practice method compared to other arts, while also pursuing the realm of "creation" as a transformation and elevation. However, the relationship between the two is not a simple or absolute causal one but rather involves a transformative mystery that transcends causality. Since ancient times, accomplished calligraphers have all succeeded in deciphering this mystery. Yet, due to differences in the context of calligraphic studies, the ancients rarely preserved their copies, and their views on copying and creation were not as distinct or clearly defined as they are today. The practical trajectories and mental journeys of generations from copying to creation have also become blurred and lost over time. To promote the development of contemporary calligraphy and explore the transformative mystery from copying to creation, we have organized the writing of this series titled "From Copying to Creation." Through the excavation of methodologies and values in ancient calligraphic systems for progressing from copying to creation, these books take individual calligraphers or specific works as their subjects of explanation, striving to comprehensively integrate multiple forms of information, such as origins and schools, imitation and innovation, subject and object, will and law, as well as textual materials and visual resources, in order to provide readers with beneficial reflections and insights. For those calligraphers in history who established schools, bridged past and future, and left a lasting legacy, we not only organize their works and documents related to copying and creation but also attempt to analyze their implicit, relatively rational approaches and transitional methods. For those masterpieces in calligraphy history that shine brightly and remain timeless classics, we not only analyze their technical features and artistic styles but also focus on how later generations understood, drew inspiration from, and selected them at different levels across various eras. Of course, during the writing process, the same source materials may lead to different perspectives, interpretive methods, and presentation effects; and the same interpretive subjects may result in certain degrees of overlap. But all of this will help us explore the points of convergence between tradition and contemporary from a broader, more flexible, and thus more comprehensive standpoint. This is also the overall effect that this series of books aims to achieve.